RANKINGS
EVENTS
I COMMITTED
COLLEGE
ABOUT
Yesterday – Monday, January 28, 2019 – was a special day for us at Extra Inning Softball as it marked the one year “birthday” of our site going live and our posting our first piece of content: Chooch Carroll On The Clock… Big-Time.
From then until now, we haven’t missed a day of posting articles, videos, even live streamed several club, pro and Team USA games!
Looking Back…
From that initial day in 2018 to our 1st “birthday,” we published 783 posts on the ExtraInningSoftball.com site or an average of about 2.2 articles per day. If you’re an annual subscriber ($110 per year), that equates to around 14 cents per article… not a bad deal we think!
Over the last year, we covered a lot of amazing stories led by our #1 story of 2018: the Early Recruiting rule changes that transformed both the club and college softball words.
Click HERE to see what our Top 15 Stories of 2018 were.
Speaking of recruiting, we published the Extra Elite 100 lists (and went 500 deep for most) for five classes: the Classes of 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 and added to the list of signed or committed players from the Classes of 2018 to 2024 so it’s bigger than any other recruiting list around.
Event-wise we were at and/or covered everything from club nationals like PGF and TC/USA Nationals up through college events like the Women’s College World Series to Team USA contests.
We also covered some emotionally-taxing tragedies including the deaths of Alex Wilcox and Geri Ann Glasco as well as many inspiring stories like the one of Avery Flatford, who is battling Cystic Fibrosis and excelling on the mound.
… Looking Ahead!
So what’s next?
Well, we have a lot of big things planned… here are 6 of the major ones coming soon…
1. HIGH SCHOOL RANKINGS: First, we’re excited to announce that Mark Tennis of Cal-Hi Sports will be doing our National High School Softball Rankings!
I’ve known Mark for over 25 years and he is no only the undisputed expert when it comes to all things regarding California high school sports, he’s also the BEST when it comes to knowing not just who are the top national teams in prep sports–be it football, basketball, baseball or softball–but also how to research and set up team rankings so they play out smoothly and accurately.
We will be having our preseason 2019 Extra Elite High School Rankings coming out in a few weeks and running throughout the season… if you’d like to submit team and player info, email: [email protected]. Be sure to send in photos too, especially of the team!
2. CLUB RANKINGS: Coming up soon as well, we will preview the summer’s top travel teams as we reveal our Extra Elite Club Rankings with lists featuring 18U, 16U, 14U and 12U programs.
Fresh on the heels of featuring many of the top players in the 2021 class–most of who are playing at the 16U level–we’ll cover the 16U age division first. Stay tuned for an upcoming timeline of when we’ll be launching the next club ranking series!
To submit info, go to our Contact Page and enter info in the “Nominate An Elite Team” section. You can also email info and photos to [email protected].
3. PLAYER RANKINGS: Our Extra Elite 100 and 101-500 player rankings have been a huge success and our next Extra Elite 100 will be (drum roll please)…. the Class of 2023!
Keep checking in as we will soon be finalizing dates for that class to be honored.
4. COLLEGE NEWS: We’re excited to expand our coverage of college softball news by introducing our College Correspondent, Justin McLeod, who you may know from his site Justin’s World of Softball.
Justin will be writing exclusive articles for us including several in the next week as we kick off the 2019 college season with profiles of top teams, players, rankings and matchups!
5. FEATURE ARTICLES: We’re also going to do more features on topical issues and relevant people and issues in the sport led by our talented correspondent Kevin Long who has written several big pieces for us already including last week’s spotlight on performance coach Austin Wasserman, the “Throwing Whisperer.”
6. NEW SITE UPGRADES: Thanks to all of you who have complimented the site and have made suggestions on how to improve the look and functionality.
That will be a priority in the upcoming weeks and months so feel free to continue provide feedback as to what you’d like to see changed or enhanced on the site.
*****
All in all, it’s been a great first year as we got to travel the nation and meet many great people who make this sport what it is. We look forward to continuing to “grow the sport” and telling stories to honor all those who work so hard to allow so many to live their dreams!
Brentt Eads, Extra Inning Softball President/Executive Editor
[email protected]